What I Came to Say

I don’t mean to intrude, or maybe I do, because I can tell you’re unhappy with each other, and that won’t do, not in the long run, and not in the short run.

Short term, you’re angry and upset, and that’s no way to get along with one another. Long term, being hateful and mad for an extended period of time can wreak havoc on your innards. You’re literally killing yourself with all this rage.

Death is a sad fact of life, but you don’t want to rush it, and wishing death on someone is a good way to speed your own demise. All those juices you stir up hating will kill you eventually, sure as the day is long.

So what I came to say is treasure life while you have it. Try to understand people who see life differently from you — and if they hate you, don’t take it personally. They don’t understand you, either.

Life is tough and then you die — it’s the same for all of us. It’s a waste of energy to go around hating, and it’s toxic energy, too, so the main person your hate harms is your own self. Do you see how foolish anger and hate are yet?

A couple of thousand years ago, this one guy went around suggesting that the two most important things are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Actually, he didn’t say it was a suggestion, he called them commandments. It’s not always easy — we don’t always understand God, and times like that it’s hard to love him — and don’t get me started on loving your neighbors. They can act in the most peculiar ways, or they can come after you and call you names or worse. But you know? The best thing to do at times like that is to love them anyway. They may not come around, but love heals. If they refuse to accept the healing, at least you will be more healthy.

Hey, look — the word “heal” is tucked inside the word “health.” It’s pronounced differently, but “health” must be what you get when you “heal.” Cool, huh?

I wrote a poem a few years back called “Love anyway.” Basically the message was to love no matter what the world throws at you. Stuff will still hurt, but if you return hurt with hurt, it just keeps hurting, back and forth. Love works better — really.

So that’s what I came to say: Love God and love your neighbor — and if I didn’t make it clear yet, that person you call an enemy (or maybe he claims you are his enemy) — that person is a neighbor, too. It’s not a perfect world, and it would not be a perfect world even if everyone loved God and loved their neighbors, but I’m pretty confident it would be a better world, and at the very least you will feel better if you do.

On your mark

Lately I’ve been busting to break out but something holds me back. The creative volcano keeps building in my heart and I swallow it down. I could be telling stories and singing songs all day and into the night, but I sit in my chair stewing and thinking about it, and then the day and the night go by.

There is a story about a life-changing train ride, and there is a story about climbing a mountain, and there is a story about a puppy who lost her way but found her way home, and there is a story about a woman who found out there was more to her than she realized, and there is a story about a team of ordinary people who happened to have superpowers and managed to save the universe, at first almost by accident but finally on purpose.

All of those stories are waiting to be told, and if I don’t tell them they will never be told. Oh, someone will tell stories like that, but they won’t be the same as my stories — and, dear reader, if you have the urge to tell those stories, now is the time, because no one can tell your stories the way you can, so get on it while you can.

And I will get on with mine, and we’ll see where it all goes.

Of course you can

From the archives. And also from the book It’s Going to be All Right, available wherever fine books are sold.

Of course you can.

Did somebody just tell you it couldn’t be done?

Or worse, did somebody just say you couldn’t do it – it’s beyond your capabilities or something you shouldn’t be doing, maybe when you have more experience or you’re older or something?

People always have reasons why you can’t do something.

But of course you can. Those other people aren’t inside you. They can’t know what you’re capable of. They can’t know how much it means for you to do this. They can’t know because they literally are not you.

Of course you can. You know what it takes, or if not, you know how to find out. And you want this enough to do the research, get started and do the work.

So all those voices who say you can’t do it – especially that tiny little voice inside yourself that wonders if everyone else is right?

Ignore them.

Of course you can.

So go get started.